


So You Can Make Me Whole

by wingsofthenight



Series: Exactly Who We Are is Just Enough [5]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Getting with a (half) devil has some effects, Mating Bond, No the rating is not a mistake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:10:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofthenight/pseuds/wingsofthenight
Summary: It turns out that the term "mate" isn't just a fancy term devils use to refer to the person they love the most. It has some effects... even if one half of a pairing is only half devil and the other is fully human. Dante's father was an extremely powerful devil, after all. Him and Lady have some things to figure out...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm finally writing something that's been stuck in my head for awhile.
> 
> No, the rating is not a mistake, how I'm doing this actually doesn't involve sex. I'm a poor ace and want to be creative here, okay? x)
> 
> Also, this takes place six-ish months after DMC1, but before the anime.

Normally, a regular run of the mill job wouldn’t make Dante question his entire relationship with the Lady he loved. Clearly, it hadn’t been one of those regular ones.

When said job came in, he hadn’t thought it would be anything odd. Sure, the woman on the phone had sounded kind of wary when she asked him to come take care of some annoying demons that had decided to camp out on their land, but that in itself hadn’t raised any sort of alarms.

Nope, nothing at all until he had actually gotten there and found out that a devil lived there and had for years.

Not only that, it turned out said devil was actually in a very long term relationship with a human, one that he referred to as his mate.

A term that Dante had long since found himself applying to his Lady, starting at least since he had come back from Mallet Island about six months ago.

Not that he was upset about what led to this realization. Soma and Katrina were definitely cool people, and it was always nice to see that his parents weren’t the only exceptions to the whole human-demon feud. Considering how long they had been together he didn’t have anything to worry about, all they wanted was to live out their lives together in peace.

Of course, the length of time they had been together was one of the first things that had made him think.

Apparently, they had been together for over twenty years. Katrina had barely looked past her mid 30s.

Good genetics? Maybe. But combined with the fact that his own mother had been pushing 50 by the time she died and she definitely had not looked anywhere close to that?

Maybe it would mean nothing for him and Lady- he desperately hoped so at least because that was something he very much never wanted to think about even though he probably should at some point- but he sincerely doubted that was the only thing that would happen. He might only be half devil, but he kind of doubted that meant anything in this particular case. He was much more powerful than most demons he saw. Seriously, the devil that had actually come close to killing him without trying to cheat was his-

Actually, maybe he should stop this train of thought right now before he ran into something again. Yep, that sounded like a _very_ good idea.

Anyway, if he remembered right, there was that journal he’d found that his mother had written for his dad. It definitely had information about things they had found about other half devils, and should still be floating around somewhere back at the shop. So, he could just talk to Lady about how this could be an issue when he got home, and if she’s okay with what could happen, they could look through that together and make sure they know what they were going to get into with this.

(He would just have to get past the complete and utter fear that she would reject him first, but that was nothing new.)

Of course, it was all well and good to say he’d talk to Lady when he got home, but it was a completely different thing in practice. Honestly, there were times he hated traffic even more than Mundus. …Maybe Mundus created traffic. It would not surprise him one single bit if he did, they were both evil after all.

By the time Dante got home, it was well after midnight. It wasn’t exactly odd for either of them to stay up far later than was wise, whether from a job or just general insomnia, but he could tell that she was already asleep in their bed the moment he walked in the door.

 _…Shit._ He should not be able to walk in and know exactly where she was. How long had he been doing this? How long had he been doing whatever it was that made someone your mate without noticing?

Or… had he? Yeah, things were progressing in their relationship to say the very least, but if he had to have someone remind him of the whole mate thing, maybe it wasn’t as sudden as he assumed before. There was still chance for her to change her mind.

Dante let out a sharp breath, closing his eyes against the sudden pain that arose at that thought. If she wanted to leave, rejected this relationship because of what he was… what point would there be anymore?

_Stop it. Lady wouldn’t want you to do that. These past few months have just made things even worse, quit going down this road again._

He hated how telling himself that made no difference. If there was one thing he outright despised about himself, it was the fact that he knew how he reacted when people left. When Trish had run off to see the world… okay, it was not anywhere near the worst time because he knew that she wasn’t dead and would pop in at the most inopportune times just to annoy them and probably interrupt their _quality_ time, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was that it was another person he was close to that left him. Regardless of the fact that it wasn’t death this time, nothing changed the mindset he always fell into.

And now he was spiraling again. Tomorrow was already going to be hard enough with the talk they had to have, he didn’t need Lady being disappointed at him for drinking instead of sleeping on top of that. They were both trying to get better about that…

After spending some time in the bathroom and cleaning up, he finally got up the courage to walk in their room to see her. Was immediately seeing her always something that relaxed him? Or was that something that was happening because of being with her? No no, it had happened before. How else could he explain all of the times he was so relieved to see her after she went on long jobs even before they got together? Maybe it had increased since then, but it definitely had always been there.

He couldn’t resist the small smile he let slip before sitting in bed and softly running a hand through her hair. Whenever this relief had shown up, that didn’t change the feeling.

Of course, that made Lady stir. “Dante?” she mumbled. “Everything okay?”

Dante couldn’t help the soft smile that crossed his face. “Nothing to worry about, my Lady.” Why couldn’t he just outright lie and say everything was alright? Instead of going back to sleep, she turned her head and blearily looked up at him, making him sigh and say, “I’ll talk about it in the morning, but it’s nothing bad and I really want to go to sleep.”

She stared at him for a few longer moments before sighing and pushing him down, throwing the covers over him, and burying her face into his chest. “Fine. We _will_ talk in the morning though.”

He shook his head, an amused breath escaping as he wrapped his arms around her. “Wouldn’t dream of thinking otherwise.”

“Good.” After several long moments where he was sure she’d drifted off again, she said very softly, “Glad you’re back, it was getting cold without your ridiculously warm body heat.”

He choked up, immediately burying his head in her hair and just breathing in her scent. If just the sight of her was enough to relax him, her scent did all of that and more. “No where else I’d rather be,” he whispered.

Regardless of whatever she decided in the morning, at least he still had this one night where she could just hold the person he loved most, the only person he could see himself spending the rest of his life with.

* * *

 

 

At this point, having been together with Dante for well over a year, Lady had perfected her ability to wake up, extract herself from his hold without waking him up, and head downstairs to get a cup of the chocolate milk that had finally gone on sale for breakfast. Probably not the healthiest or most filling breakfast, but she maintained that his laziness had infected her. Despite the fact that he was more than willing to make something if she asked.

Speaking of Dante, what had he wanted to talk to her about last night? He’d definitely had something bothering him when he came in last night, though if it was something actually bad he wouldn’t still be clinging to her when she woke up. He had a problem with misplaced guilt unfortunately enough.

She had two options at this point: wait for him to bring it up and talk to her himself, or to bring it up herself and make him explain. As they had a job to do later today he probably didn’t know about yet and he could take weeks to actually talk about things (not that she was one to talk…), she chose the latter.

First things first though: she had to wake him up.

That was simple enough, so Lady walked back into their room, seeing how her lover was still more or less in the exact same position, just clinging onto her pillow instead of her. Sometimes she wondered if he actually noticed she wasn’t there, he definitely seemed to like her pillow just as much. Maybe she should get him one of those body pillows for a present…

Waking Dante up gently didn’t tend to do anything, he just rolled over. Waking him up by kissing also tended to escalate things, which while very enjoyable would unfortunately not exactly be helpful this morning. Waking him up by pretending something was wrong was also not advised.

So, she just walked up to him and flicked his ear a couple times.

Like usual, Dante made a whining noise and cracked open an eye to glare at her. “Can you not?”

She smirked, patting him on the head. “Aw, does the big bad half devil find an ear flick too painful for him? Does it rank above getting stabbed in the chest for the billionth time?”

Something flashed in his eyes when she mentioned what he was, but it was gone too fast for her to interpret, and he just chose to roll his eyes and stretch. (It was with much practice that she was able to keep her eyes locked onto his face on his face as he did that.) He got up and grabbed some clothes from the dresser, throwing on said clothes before telling her he’d be back in a few minutes.

Knowing that when he said a few minutes he usually meant awhile longer, she chose to just grab the gun magazine she’d left on the dresser and make herself comfortable on the bed, making sure to take advantage of the fact that his side was still warm. It was still winter after all.

It was at least fifteen minutes until Dante came back in. Lady hadn’t really been counting of course, too busy looking at all the new guns she would have to restrain herself from getting, but eventually she noticed that he was leaning in the doorway, just staring at her with such a tender yet hesitant look on his face. “Dante?”

He hesitated a second, but after taking a deep breath he asked, “Can we talk?”

She stared at him, a little surprised he brought it up first. “You do realize how bad that sounds, right?”

“No! It’s not bad! It’s just… a thing.”

“Eloquent as always,” she snarked, but obligingly tossed the magazine away. “What is it?”

Still staring at her with that same look, Dante slowly walked over to sit on the bed next to her, looking down at his clasped hands. “You… uh… you know that job I went on yesterday?”

“What about it?”

“Turns out that the people that called were a human/devil couple.”

“And they called you?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. She wouldn’t have called a devil hunter that was rumored not to be fully human with all the things that entailed.

“Yep. He couldn’t take care of a bunch trying to make a nest on their property so they took the chance because the alternatives were worse. But they’ve been together for like twenty years or so and there’s been nothing going on and they actually called someone that would know right off the bat what he was, so they’re good in my books.”

Lady let out a hmm at that. She had been uncomfortable at the beginning of their friendship with how willing he was to spare devils that didn’t have any ill intentions, but she had long since learned how Dante’s mind worked on issues like this. It still made her uncomfortable at times, but given her relationship with him she couldn’t say anything at this point.

“And?” she asked, unable to see what the big deal about it was.

Dante stayed silent and fidgeted for awhile. She was moments away from demanding he explain what he was worried about because she did not exactly have a lot of patience when he finally quietly said, “He called her his mate. That’s what my dad called my mom and what I… what I think of you.”

She sighed. “Dante, I know this already. It was hard not to notice. Anything else?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Shit. Look, it’s not that, its what it means. You know the picture of my mom I have?” When she nodded because it was hard to miss, he sucked in a breath and continued, “How old do you think she was when she took that picture?”

Starting to figure out where this was going, she quietly guessed, “30 something?”

Dante shook his head. “45, actually. Took it the same day we did a bunch of family portraits when I was about seven.”

Lady let out a breath. She had always wondered if his parents had done anything about the lifespan differences, and if this was how they did it… well, she was glad that they apparently hadn’t done anything shady, but the implications for her and Dante…

Before she could say anything, he continued, “Okay, maybe that won’t be a thing with me if all my bad luck gets used on everything else like it’s been going, but… I don’t think that’s the only thing… I vaguely remember stuff about my mom, and she was still human, don’t get me wrong, but I kind of think that… well, getting with a really strong devil did things, and I kind of don’t think that aging would be the only thing, I mean I’ve seen some stuff they left me that talked about it about it, and I can’t really remember most of it but-“

“Dante,” she said, cutting him off because when he got to rambling like this he wouldn’t stop on his own, “what exactly does this mean? Did… did this already happen with us?”

“No.” came the immediate answer, her lover finally looking back over at her with a tender yet helpless look on his face. “We haven’t. Positive that it won’t happen if we don’t fully know what we were doing.”

He took in a deep breath, looking away again and seemingly trying to steel himself. “Lady… I don’t know exactly what it will mean. I can find out, but… if this isn’t something you want to do… we can end this. If whatever this would mean isn’t something you want to have happen, that’s up to you. I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want. I don’t want you to have to do anything you’d ever be uncomfortable with.”

Lady stared at him. Dante wasn’t lying. If she told him that she didn’t want any of this, he would back off, no matter how much it hurt him to back off. She knew that he would never do anything against her wishes. The moment she seemed uncomfortable about something, he always stopped immediately and made sure she was okay. All she had to do was say the word and all of this would be over. She could continue on her life, knowing that nothing would change.

Except it would.

If this… bond had gotten far enough that Dante was worried that it would formulate if they carried on… it had to have been because of both of them. She sincerely doubted that if she was that opposed to it they would have gotten anywhere near this point.

Even if it wasn’t for that… she didn’t want to stop seeing him. Ever.

He might be only half human, might be half of a species that she had mindlessly despised only a decade ago, but that did nothing to change the fact that he was _Dante._

He was the one that always smiled when he saw her come through the door, the one to make sure that she was okay after a mission. He always made sure she remembered to eat at least a couple meals a day, to remind her of how good home cooked food was, to remember how nice it is to actually cook with someone. He always held her tight, making her actually wonder if she really was as beautiful and good as he always made her feel.

If she gave all of this up just because she refused to accept who the person she fell in love with was, she would never forgive herself.

Instead of saying all of this out loud, she carefully moved to sit beside him, close enough that their arms touched, the touch doing more to comfort her than anything else. “Dante, look at me,” she requested softly. The moment he did with apprehensive eyes, she cupped his cheek with her hand, smiling softly when he leaned into her touch. “I told you, I know who you are. I don’t care. It’s always been you, even when I refused to see it.”

Dante gave her a smile so full of relief and happiness that it almost blinded her. She had expected him to clutch onto her so tightly she would have to remind him she needed to breathe, but while he did take her into his arms, he only held her loosely by the waist, kissing her on the forehead before leaning his own forehead against hers. “What did I ever do to deserve you?” he asked softly.

Lady shook her head as much as she could without dislodging him, a smile tugging at her lips as well.  “A lot of things, believe me.”

Her lover chuckled a bit at that, leaning back to cup her cheek with his hand, running his thumb over her skin. “We’d be here all day if I tried to argue, so I’ll shut up and agree just this once.”

“Oh look, I finally made you shut up. What a good day!” she teased.

She could literally sense the _comment_ Dante wanted to make at that, but he thankfully seemed to think otherwise as to not ruin the moment.

Though that did make her wonder. “So… exactly how does this whole ‘mating’ thing happen? We go and have sex?”

With a pensive look on his face, Dante mused out loud, “Nah, don’t think so. Would’ve happened before. I mean, it’s not like we’re sexually inactive to say the very least.”

Lady couldn’t exactly say anything against that logic, so she just asked, “Got any ideas as to how it happens then? If it’s some sort of weird public demonic ritual I’m having second thoughts.”

He barked out a laugh at that. “Nope, I’m positive it’s a private thing. Think I might have an idea of how it works now that I’m thinking about it, but I kind of want to look up some stuff I have to make sure.”

“You can do that later,” she said, smirking at him as she stood up. “Another mission came up while you were gone. Looks like a few demons are trying to start another nest in another snobby rich person’s house they only have for tax deductions. Big payout if we can get them out by the end of the week, and I’m assured we won’t get pay deductions for small cosmetic damages.”

Dante stood up, a shark like grin on his face as he headed downstairs for his weapons. “Good, we can get rid of any disgusting curtains.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Lady replied, yanking him down for a short kiss before dancing away downstairs the moment he tried to deepen it.

They had already gotten too sappy this morning after all. Time to get more into their element and beat up some demons. Would be a good precursor to whatever happened later, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not all that happy about this chapter to be honest, especially the beginning... I was planning to actually write out Dante meeting that human/devil couple, but it started being less about Dante/Lady and more about them which wasn't the point so I had to stop. You can kind of tell how jarring it is at the beginning... though maybe one day I'll write them out, who knows?
> 
> Anyway, like I've said, this is something I've wanted to explore for awhile. Dante/Lady is probably the best one to explore it with too, because neither of them know exactly what's in store, but Dante does know exactly how to follow his instincts on things like this and knows whether something is wrong or right, and you don't get this exact combination with Sparda/Eva or Nero/Kyrie for different reasons.
> 
> On a not story related reason... what possessed me to actually say there's going to be three chapters? Yes, I do have stuff plotted for this many, but I have a bad feeling it's going to be more... oh well, I doubt you guys will complain if it does turn out to be four or more.


	2. Chapter 2

Lady sighed as she dumped the box she’d retrieved from one of the spare rooms on the desk, proceeding to glare at her lover until he finally looked up from the papers he’d been shifting through. “You said you’d clean out the spare room last month.”

Dante froze for a moment before sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “…Oops?”

She sighed again. Why did he have to look so endearing when he did that? It made it so hard to stay mad at him sometimes. “…Just clean it out. We’re already down a room since Trish needs one when she shows up.”

Dante looked pensive. “Yeah, might be a good idea to have more rooms just in case. Maybe we should put some money aside for renovations.” He shrugged, pulling the box towards him. “Eh, can do that later. Don’t really need that much more space yet. Plus we have that one downstairs.”

“That room barely has enough space for a bed,” Lady replied dryly.

“Exactly! People won’t try to stay with us if that’s the only room we have for them!”

“Is that your explanation for being lazy this time?”

“Please, like I’m ever about to let onto anyone that there’s a whole upstairs floor to this place.”

“So, you admit it’s purely out of laziness.”

“…Oh hey, I haven’t seen some of these books in years! Forgot I had these!”

Lady rolled her eyes at his pathetic attempt at deflection, but decided to just help pull all of the books out, flipping through each to check if they were the handwritten one they were looking for.

There was a handwritten one that very much caught her eye, but it wasn’t the one they were looking for. Instead, it was... “Is this… is this a _handwritten_ copy of Macbeth?” she asked, eyebrows shooting up in shock.

“Yep! Did it a few years ago.”

“You _wrote_ this?!”

Dante, of course, had no idea why she was so shocked. “Uh… yeah? I got really bored and the copy I had was in a bad shape and I had a free notebook, so…”

She let out a deep breath, barely keeping in her incredulous and half hysterical laugh. “Dante, if a book gets old, normally people buy new ones. They don’t _write it out themselves because they’re bored.”_

“…I don’t get it.”

Lady just facepalmed. “I swear…” she muttered, shaking her head before collecting herself. “Look. I told you, normal people don’t do that. Seriously, look at this! You could sell these kinds of books for all the money you could ever want. Where the hell did you learn how to write in cursive this well? This is better than a lot of professional calligraphy I’ve seen!”

Dante looked down at the book he’d just closed, a melancholy expression crossing his face. “There were only so many things mom could do to keep two annoying half devils out of her hair for a bit so she could do stuff,” he said quietly, still not meeting her eyes as he reached for another book. “Getting me and Verge to practice our writing was one of them.” He laughed a bit, eyes closing as he shook his head. “She knew what she was doing too. Wasn’t about to let Verge beat me in anything and he felt the same, so yeah we practiced a lot. Never let on to which of us was better though. Drove us crazy.”

Without even realizing she had moved, Lady put her hand on his shoulder, unsurprised when he immediately turned and buried his face into her shirt. She did enjoy hearing about the people that would have been her in-laws in another life, but she knew just how hard it was to dredge up the memories of the time before demons had arrived to ruin it.

After a couple minutes, Dante finally moved his head, giving her a grateful smile before turning back to his task. (Which she kind of hoped would be soon. She wasn’t sure what exactly she would be looking for and could only just stand there awkwardly and wait because she wasn’t going to leave at this point.)

Thankfully, it was only a few minutes of distracting herself by trying to figure out how the hell she didn’t realize before how good his handwriting could be- yeah, she knew that if he bothered to try his print was good, and his signature was actually great, so she should have figured it out before in the past ten years of knowing him- before Dante let out a triumphant noise.

“Oh, look, you finally found something,” Lady teased, hopping up from her perch on the desk to stand beside him.

Dante snorted. “Please, like you noticed the time. Don’t think I didn’t hear you muttering about how jealous you are about my handwriting.”

“I was _not_ muttering.”

“Was too!”

“Was not.”

“Was too!”

“Was not.”

“Was too!”

“Was not.”

“Was too!”

“Was not. Seriously, did you find it?”

He pouted at her, but thankfully didn’t continue on the quite frankly stupid and childish argument they had started, instead saying, “Yeah. This is it. Journal mom and dad left behind. Hopefully they wrote about this mating thing here.”

“Does seem like something they’d note,” she replied, leaning back against the desk, folding her arms and doing her best not to notice her lover steeling himself and tensing up as he opened the journal, taking a moment just to stare at whatever was written on the first page before sucking in a breath and continuing to flip through it.

Lady shifted. “So… how accurate is this information?”

Dante shrugged. “Pretty,” he answered somewhat distractedly as he skimmed through the pages. “Some stuff doesn’t end up applying to me thankfully, but it was actually pretty helpful when I first found it after… you know.”

She was kind of curious about what he was thankful for that he didn’t have, but quickly decided that she probably didn’t want to know by the time her partner frowned and took a sheet of paper out, eyebrows rising as he unfolded it. “Holy…”

“What is it?”

Dante shook his head, an incredulous laugh escaping his lips as he set down the paper in his hands to stare at her, a wry grin on his face. “See for yourself,” he replied, handing it to her.

_To the person my son chose,_

Lady’s eyebrows shot up as she looked over at the man sitting in front of her, finding him staring at her concerned. “Dante… are you sure I should be reading this?”

“It is addressed to you, you know.”

She blinked, staring at him for several long seconds as she tried to collect her thoughts. She knew exactly what she was to him, but hearing him say it out loud… she really needed to stop this, so she just cleared her throat and kept reading the letter.

_If you’re reading this- wow that’s a generic way to start this letter… but I don’t know how else to say this… anyway, if you’re reading this I’m more than likely gone. If not, feel free to track me down and ask why I left this here or gave this notebook to Dante to begin with because I should be forcing Sparda to tell him all this himself while I be annoyed as to why I had to write all this for him to begin with._

She couldn’t help the snort that came out. Looks like Eva had some of the same thought patterns as her son. Well, she had raised him, so it probably wasn’t all that surprising.

_Anyway, that ominous message aside, you’re probably going to want this letter. I sure wish I had had one instead of having to make Sparda tell me. I hope that asking Dante stuff isn’t anywhere near like pulling teeth as it is his father, if not I am so sorry…_

Well, it wasn’t too bad at least. Dante just tended to forget about stuff and avoid topics he didn’t want to talk about, but that was about it. About the only big thing he had forgotten to talk about was the fact that he had a Devil Trigger. (She still felt guilty about shooting him out of shock even if he always waved it of…) Other than that he was pretty good about getting things out if asked.

_If you’re reading this, your relationship has probably advanced quite a bit. Gotten very serious. Probably fallen in bed together at least once- wait no I’m not thinking about that, this is my baby I’m talking about… but yes, serious. Very serious. Probably talking about mating serious. Hopefully you know what mating is. If not, direct Dante’s attention to the section that you found this in. It has the information you need, especially if you’re fully human like I am._

She couldn’t resist, even though she could already see Dante carefully looking through the book, presumably at that exact section. “Your mom told me to read the section you found this letter in.”

“Thanks. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Have a much more boring life probably.”

_So. Mating. Dante and Vergil could possibly not have inherited this particular instinct, but I sincerely doubt it. Even when they’re so young it’s clear they’ve inherited a lot from their father, and I’m not sure this would be an exception._

  
_Mating is not a bad thing. Quite the opposite actually. It is in fact a very pleasurable link between you and your devil-blooded lover. It’s also not all that common- usually devils… well, you probably know what they do. They don’t always form a bond with the person they screw. Come to think of it, they don’t tend to screw all that often. Not a bad thing, mind you. We do not need even more intelligent devils wandering around…_

  
_Anyway, the bond has to be a mutual, discussed decision. You cannot create it by accident. Also, if you’re at all worried about that, you will not turn into a devil. Or even a half devil. I’ve been with Sparda for years and am still human. Just… I guess that you’ll still be a human with some extras. Best way I can think of to put it._

  
_First off, your senses will increase. Not anywhere near to the point of any of the ones with actual devil blood in the family, but definitely noticeably. Don’t worry, you’ll adjust quickly. In fact, it will be very weird to think about you not having that before if my experience is any indication. You’ll also have an easier time telling if something is a demon as well, which would have made my life much easier if I’d had that in the years before I met Sparda._

  
_Another thing that I probably should have brought up first is the fact that mating does form a bond between you and your mate. Don’t worry, you will not be able to actually hear the other’s thoughts. The twins probably wouldn’t have come anywhere close to having been born if that were the case because I would have gone insane first. It’s more like a form of empathy, but mostly focused on your mate and to a lesser extent any children you might have. (Which I hope is at least one, grandchildren would be amazing.) It’s also easier to tell what someone feels, but nowhere near to the same extent._

  
_Hmm… another thing would be… well, you inherit your mate’s lifespan, whatever that is. We don’t know what the twins’ will be yet. Suspect, yes, but we don’t know. Things can happen regardless- if you’re reading this you probably know that for a fact- but it is still something you need to be prepared for. It’s not something to take lightly. But if you’re far enough along in your relationship with Dante to be thinking about this, you probably suspect this might come up. I hope that whatever you decide, it’s whatever makes you the happiest._

  
_Most of all thought, I hope that you both have as happy of a life as we have had for however long that will last. I’ve probably forgotten to mention some small things, but they should all have been written in the journal I’ve left you both, and I know that I’ve covered all of the major things. Whoever you are that my son chose, I know that you are someone that I would be proud to have in my family. Dante may not seem like it, but I know he is an excellent judge of character. He wouldn’t choose just anyone to share his life with, so whoever you are, I know that you’re a very special person, and I very much wish I had the chance to meet you for myself._  
_All my happiness,_  
_Eva_

“Lady?”

Said woman quickly blinked her eyes, folding the letter back up and putting it on the desk and clearing her throat. “You know, your mom definitely blows your handwriting out of the water,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice steady and not shaking from the shock of reading a letter addressed to her from a woman that she had nothing but a high opinion of and who she wished she had been able to meet once.

Dante did seem to realize she was deflecting, but thankfully chose not to pursue. “Heh. Well, she was the one that taught us after all. Definitely didn’t want us inheriting out dad’s handwriting for sure. Seriously, that was like a foreign language you’re never going to understand.”

She snorted. “2000 years and he couldn’t learn how to write so people can actually read it? Sad.”

“Used up too much of his time being a dork.”

“Guess that’s the thing he passed down.”

“Hey, you love me being a dork!”

She couldn’t help but put her hands on his shoulders as she smiled at him. “It does make life much more entertaining,” she said, leaning down to capture his lips.

After a very enjoyable kiss, they broke apart, Dante immediately reaching up to cup her cheek tenderly. “Lady… did mom- did she…”

Lady nodded, sighing before answering, “She did. She talked about the major things that might happen. I… it’s a whole lot to take in for sure, but…” she took in a deep breath, steeling herself before answering, “I think I want to do it. No, not think. I know.”

“Are you sure? We don’t have to do it now, if you need more time to think-“

“Dante. If I think anymore, I’m just going to second guess myself and try to convince myself that I don’t want this. I’m sure.”

She would never tire of the brilliant smiles he always gave her.

Well, at least this way she was sure she would always get to see those for as long as they lived.

After a couple minutes of very nice cuddling, Lady pulled back to look at her lover. “So… how exactly do we do this mating thing? You said you’re pretty sure it isn’t sex.”

Dante hummed, drumming his hands on her back and once again making her very glad she wasn’t ticklish. “Yeah, it’s not. Was right about that one at least.  Looks like my other assumption was right, so that’s how we’re going to do it.”

She let out a long suffering sigh. “Dante. You never told me what you thought it was.”

“…I didn’t?”

“No.”

“…Oh.”

“How does it work then?”

“Well… it’s more like sharing power and energy. Not even close to enough to change either partner, but enough to form a… you know… bond. Don’t worry though, the point of it is to bring two people closer together. If you want to mate with someone you’re not going to want to overwhelm them or change them, so nothing to worry about on that area.” He cocked his head, a thought seemingly occurring to him. “Actually, come to think of it, if you really wanted you could do it through sex, but I’d rather not work out how that would work.”

She nodded, the vast majority of her doubts washed away with that assurance, though she did have one more question. “You’re not going to bite me and mark me, are you? I’d rather you not growl every time I try covering it up with my shirt, and I know how annoyingly possessive you can be.”

“I’m not that possessive!”

She just stared at him until he pouted and looked away, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Okay, I can occasionally be kind of overprotective-“

“Earlier today you triggered and launched yourself at an Enigma that got an attack within ten feet of me.”

“-but I’m not about to do that. I’m perfectly fine with just leaving normal hickeys and watching you be annoyed at having to try and hide them. Besides, I’m sure my mom didn’t have a bite mark on her neck or shoulders and I refuse to acknowledge the possibility of her having any elsewhere.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. Yeah, his habit of doing that did annoy her because some of her shirts didn’t exactly help cover his favorite places up, but the fact that even after being alive for almost thirty years he still refused to imagine his parents finding pleasure in each other.

(Of course, she was a little bit of a hypocrite, but who can blame her for this particular issue?)

Instead of mockingly getting annoyed at her, Dante instead, in a move too fast for her to follow, twirled around so that she was sitting in the chair and he was kneeling in front of her. “My dear Lady, will you do me the honor of mating with me?” he asked, clasping one of her hands in both of his as he looked up at her with such an earnest expression on his face.

Lady shook her head, a laugh trying to escape as she clapped her free hand over her eyes. “Oh my god-“

“Nope, I’m not a god, just a devilishly handsome half devil named Dante.”

“You are such a dork,” she said fondly, shaking her head with a wide grin on her face.

“But I’m your dork, aren’t I?”

Her smile turned into a much softer one, leaning down to give him a soft, lingering kiss, feeling his answering smile. “Always,” she whispered.

Seriously, she could never be able to get enough of his smiles, especially when he gave her one that made him look younger than he’d ever seemed even when she had first met him, telling her that they’d do the mating later because first he wanted her to have one of the best times of her life before it.

It took her quite a bit to not tell him that any night he was with her was that already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I lied. It's going to be four chapters. We were going to be getting to the actual mating today, but my mind decided that it would be a much better idea to write Dante being completely and utterly in love with her all through date night and this chapter would have more than doubled in length. Next chapter doe sure though ^^ 
> 
> On Dante's handwriting: okay, so the 5 artbook showed it was... something for sure. But I am still attached to the idea that he has surprisingly good handwriting, so this was my compromise. 
> 
> Also I have a major urge to write Eva and Lady talking and interacting now... maybe I should just stuff all the fluffy au bits where the whole sparda fam is alive that's unconnected to anything in a series or something...

**Author's Note:**

> Not all that happy about this chapter to be honest, especially the beginning... I was planning to actually write out Dante meeting that human/devil couple, but it started being less about Dante/Lady and more about them which wasn't the point so I had to stop. You can kind of tell how jarring it is at the beginning... though maybe one day I'll write them out, who knows?
> 
> Anyway, like I've said, this is something I've wanted to explore for awhile. Dante/Lady is probably the best one to explore it with too, because neither of them know exactly what's in store, but Dante does know exactly how to follow his instincts on things like this and knows whether something is wrong or right, and you don't get this exact combination with Sparda/Eva or Nero/Kyrie for different reasons.
> 
> On a not story related reason... what possessed me to actually say there's going to be three chapters? Yes, I do have stuff plotted for this many, but I have a bad feeling it's going to be more... oh well, I doubt you guys will complain if it does turn out to be four or more.


End file.
